Next, you must abandon your shame.
You have the knowledge of the Lord to repent of your shameful behavior of the past or present. You know what to do if Satan returns to torment you with shameful thoughts. But this next step is of vital importance: You must abandon the sins that caused your shame.
The Bible gives a graphic picture of those who repeat their sinful behavior:
Proverbs 26:11 NKJV "As a dog returns to his own vomit, So a fool repeats his folly."
It is better that you never heard this message than for you to hear it and then return to shame-causing behavior. The Bible warns in 2 Peter 2:20-22:
"For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire."
You must abandon the sinful behaviors that caused your shame and do as Paul said:
Galatians 5:1 NKJV "Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage."
The Apostle Paul, David, the woman caught in adultery, and Rahab all abandoned the shame-producing behavior of their past. The "Go and sin no more" command of Jesus is what we need to remember and stop the behavior that is bringing the shame.
Before you let shame destroy you ask yourself these three questions:
(1) Is my questionable behavior right in the sight of God?
In other words, as the Bible says in James 4:17:
"Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin."
(2) If I get caught doing this thing that has and is causing me shame who will it affect the most?
The Bible again says:
Exodus 20:5 “You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me.”
Exodus 34:6-7 “The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.”
The shame of a fallen minister, a disgraced father, or a mother's failure can bring pain upon a family that shame will always remember. Think before you do something that allows shame to manhandle you!
(3) Is bearing the shame of my failure going to affect my future?
It will-unless you ask forgiveness for your sin and walk circumspectly before God and man. The only way to defeat shame is to forsake what put you there in the first place and prove yourself before the Lord by living a repentant lifestyle and letting others see the change in you. Don't let shame tell you "it doesn't matter what others think" and fall back into it's trap again.
If you abandon shames hold on you and prove yourself as a transformed individual God will restore what the shame stole from you.
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